Missing/Captured: Bowe Bergdahl

[AWP]

Until the charges, the spin was for damage control and I find it hilarious no one talked about this "fear for his life" angle until after charges were filed. Yeah, he's in fear for his life alright...at Leavenworth, not Paktika provice.

Now the spin is a defense strategy which the defense has to prove or at least offset the prosecution's case. PR's taking a backseat to whatever bullshit his lawyer can throw against a courtroom wall. With this allegation he'll become a "victim" of an uncaring system and I'd expect the defense to use the suicide of Danny Chen to show how Bergdahl's life was in danger; "the system punishes the innocent" or whatever. Of course, his platoon will go on trial as well as part of the defense's strategy. They will be dragged through the mud to establish their credibility.

The world would be a better place if the TB has just killed him.

 

[Viper1]

The last e-mail he sent to his parents. He hated America, he hated the Army, he wanted to unass the whole fucking show. This is a guy who got a psych discharge from the Coasties 26 days into boot camp. Read this and tell me he wanted to go anywhere near another US base.

mom, dad,

The future is too good to waste on lies. And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be american. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting. [...] [Three good sergeants had been forced to move to another company] [...] and one of the biggest shit bags is being put in charge of the team. [...] [My battalion commander was] a conceited old fool. [...] In the US army you are cut down for being honest... but if you are a conceited brown nosing shit bag you will be allowed to do what ever you want, and you will be handed your higher rank... The system is wrong. I am ashamed to be an american. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools. ... The US army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at. It is the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies. The few good SGTs are getting out as soon as they can, [...] I am sorry for everything here. These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live... We don't even care when we hear each other talk about running their children down in the dirt streets with our armored trucks... We make fun of them in front of their faces, and laugh at them for not understanding we are insulting them [...] I am sorry for everything. The horror that is america is disgusting.


This dude is fucking whacked and his shit is right out of Apocalypse Now.

Perhaps the prosecution may use this e-mail to their advantage. I am willing to argue many in service have written similar things about poor leadership, good leaders being sent away or canned, disillusionment with the unit or the mission, disgust with the actions of others, etc. The difference between Berghdal and others is the others make a conscious choice not to desert. They find a way to express their frustration, whether through talking with friends, hobbies, lifting, writing, or simply saying "I'm sticking it out until my enlistment is up and then I'm ETSing." Berghdal made a decision to do the opposite. For that, he has been charged.

I have no doubt the UCMJ process will play out fairly and appropriately.

 

[Viper1]

This shitbag should be shot.

He would be the first since PVT Eddie Slovik in 1945. It seems from the first article the execution was ordered and approved in order to prevent future desertions, especially at a time when the U.S. Army was on its heels a bit due to the winter German offensive. I would like to think in the 21st century, with a volunteer army, that execution is no longer necessary.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...-american-soldier-executed-for-desertion.html
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-execution-of-eddie-slovik-is-authorized

 

[Ranger Psych]

You're dead wrong, execution is absolutely necessary given a volunteer army.

 

[DA SWO]

He's a marked man regardless. There are enough people willing to punch him in the mouth that he will not spend too much time out and about. His old man needs a kick in the nads too.

 

[ThunderHorse]

Guy joins the legion, returns on own accord: 4 years in federal prison. Bergdahl is exchanged for five Taliban VIPs...executing him would send a serious message to our ranks and to the enemy.

 

[medicchick]

“This is what’s behind the Article 99 misbehavior charge. Essentially, there is clear evidence that he was ‘going over to the other side’ and he had a deliberate plan,” Shaffer said. “There’s two different strings here, Bill, to go off. First, one of the strings says that he was going to go off to Uzbekistan. He had made contact with the local Afghans and wanted to be moved to Uzbekistan, and then made contact with the Russians because he wanted to talk to Russian organized crime.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...eport-reveals-bowe-bergdahls-deliberate-plan/

A 2009 NCIS investigation into Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's disappearance found two possible motives for why he walked away from his base before being held captive by Taliban allies for five years, a retired Army official told Fox News.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Bo...ussian-Mob-Tony-Shaffer/2015/04/06/id/636811/

So, you have the US so much you'd rather go play with the Russian mob?:-/

 

[Salt USMC]

So, you have the US so much you'd rather go play with the Russian mob?:-/

I think the statement that his lawyer made in that letter from a few weeks back sums it up well: "He's incredibly naive and idealistic."

 

[pardus]

I think the statement that his lawyer made in that letter from a few weeks back sums it up well: "He's incredibly naive and idealistic."

I think the statement "He's a stupid cunt" would be far more appropriate, and accurate.

 

[DA SWO]

I think the statement that his lawyer made in that letter from a few weeks back sums it up well: "He's incredibly naive and idealistic."

His motivations are awesome,







.......during the sentencing phase.

 

[Gunz]

Lemme see...US Army? Or Russian Mafia? Army? Or Russian Mafia?... Decisions, decisions... :-/:wall:

Well there's one thing for sure. There probably aren't any "fools" or "old fools" or "brown-nosing shitbags" or "wrong ideas" or "self-righteous arrogance" in the Russian Mob. And I'll bet they don't "cut down people who are honest." :-":whatever: Uzbekistan, here I come

 

[SexyBeast]

He was probably seeking to be a gay prostitute with them

 

[Gunz]

He was probably seeking to be a gay prostitute with them

Well of course, that has to be it

 

[SexyBeast]

LOL

 

[Beagle]

The loser should be executed. We traded 5 top level terrorists for this loser? I hope he gets dishonorable discharge or at least a bad conduct discharge.

My unit was quick in transferring out any problem child back to Germany so they can be chaptered out of the Army.

Well at least during his trial he can call the National Security Advisor as his character witness....what a joke.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/06/politics/rice-cnn-interview/

 

[Ooh-Rah]

...and reality sets in...

Look who's about to be released -

http://www.breitbart.com/natio...hanged-for-bergdahl/

The five senior Taliban Commanders released from Guantanamo (GITMO) in exchange for the return of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl are set to be freed from their “luxurious” confinement in Qatar effective June 1.

These five hard-core terrorists are Mullah Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq, Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Khairullah Khairkhwa and Mohammend Nabi Omari. They were classified as some of the most dangerous Taliban commanders held at GITMO, according to Thomas Joscelyn of The Long War Journal.

There is little doubt that these five Taliban commanders will return to the Afghanistan battlefield.

The real issue that should not be overlooked is why these five hardcore terrorists were traded for the return of Bergdahl, a deserter, according to his platoon mates. Bergdahl left his guard post and walked away from his base in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. He took off his body armor and left his weapon behind.

 

[pardus]

Oh what a surprise! They'll be killing Coalition troops in no time! Good job Obama! Your birthday present from the Taliban is in the mail!

Signed with sincere gratitude

Mullah Omar

 

[Beagle]

They're just taking a play out of the Fast and Furious playbook. They're going to be tracking these 5 terrorists through the media. Fast and Furious was a huge failure but hey let's do it again and we might get a different result.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...-didnt-know-about-operation-fast-and-furious/
Operation Fast and Furious was supposedly a program run solely by ATF that allowed nearly 2,000 guns to “walk” out of the United States and into the hands of high-ranking cartel members so they could be tracked and federal agencies could dismantle the drug trafficking organizations

 

[Ooh-Rah]

Hmmm....General McChrystal getting pretty frontal on the topic.

LINK

When Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was traded for five high risk Taliban commanders last summer, his platoon mates quickly hit the airwaves to expose him as a deserter. They said it was known he was a deserter for years. The Obama administration, however, gave the appearance to the American people that officials were unaware of the circumstances surrounding his capture. In fact, last year State Department Deputy Spokeswoman Marie Harf said allegations Bergdahl deserted were simply "rumors." Not only did President Obama hold a Rose Garden ceremony to honor Bergdahl, but administration officials Jay Carney and Susan Rice said he "served with honor and distinction."

But now, Army General Stanley McChrystal is confirming the accounts of Bergdahl's platoon mates and said in a recent interview with Fox News it was known Bergdahl deserted immediately after his disappearance.
"My initial understanding, based on the reportings I got, that he had walked off intentionally," McChrystal said.

 

[Salt USMC]

The Bergdahl case continues to get weirder. Apparently, Bergdahl may have been indulging in a little Kunar Kush on the night that he was captured

Former CIA operative: Bergdahl was ‘high’ when captured in Afghanistan
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...rgdahl-was-high-when-captured-in-afghanistan/

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was apparently “high” with a small group of Afghan soldiers when they were picked up by nomads in 2009, according to a former CIA operative who was running a network of informants on the ground.

"The call came in and what it said was they had just broken out the message that an American soldier along with two or three Afghan soldiers had been captured or taken by a group of nomads,"Duane 'Dewey' Clarridge told Fox News, speaking for the first time publicly about the incident.

He added that the call said, “they were using the Pashto ‘diwana,’ which in this case meant high on hashish."

At the height of the Afghan war, Clarridge says he set up a network of informants to secure the release of a western journalist. Sometime after midnight, on June 30, 2009, the network came across surprising information about this other case.

Initially, Clarridge -- a 30-year veteran of the CIA who was involved in Iran-Contra-- said he had no idea who the soldier was until his informants reported that Army search teams were scouring the Afghan villages, calling out an unusual name.

"The patrols were moving around aggressively and were shouting ‘Bowe Bowe,’ and the guys down-range wanted to know, what was Bowe?” Clarridge explained. “It was at that point, we were told that the soldier was Bowe Bergdahl."

The unclassified information -- that Bergdahl was apparently high, and held by Afghan nomads, before being sold to the Haqqani terrorist network across the border in Pakistan -- was passed through the proper intelligence channels and pushed forward into Afghanistan.

This corroborates reporting from Afghan intelligence that the NY Post reported on in 2014:

Afghan intelligence think Bergdahl was ‘probably high’ when he left base
http://nypost.com/2014/06/05/afghan-intelligence-think-bergdahl-was-probably-high-when-he-left-base/

As the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from his US military base in 2009 continues to grow, two questions remain: was he trying to find the Taliban? Or did he simply wander away and get captured?
Adding to the mystery, the Washington Post has spoken to a group of Afghan villagers who say they spotted Bergdahl shortly after he slipped away from his base.

They told the paper they had forgot about their 2010 sighting of the Bergdahl — who appeared to be deliberately heading towards Taliban strongholds — until they saw his face on the news this week.

“We think he probably was high after smoking hashish,” Ibrahim Manikhel, the district’s intelligence chief, told the Washington Post.

“Why would an American want to find the Taliban?”

The villagers said Bergdahl was walking through the area in a haze. They later told Afghan investigators that they had warned the American that he was heading into a dangerous area.

“They tried to tell him not to go there, that it is dangerous. But he kept going over the mountain. The villagers tried to give him water and bread, but he didn’t take it,” Manikhel told the Washington Post.

One thing is for certain, Berghdal was acting strangely in the days leading up to his disappearance.

His former squad team leader told Fox News the soldier had asked for help to get his computer mailed home.

This report, if true, undermines a lot of credibility from Bergdahl's legal team. Their proposition, that Bergdahl left the base in order to travel to a nearby COP in order to report wrongdoing, will be very difficult to prove if in fact he was high at the time.

EDIT: I know that Bergdahl was actually captured in Paktika province, but "Kunar kush" sounded like a much better euphemism